SirToppamHat

buoy15 talked about

Team Needs
Task Needs
Individual Needs

Yes I agree, but the real key is to remember that the order of importance varies with the task. For example, in war the task may be so important that you are prepared to risk (or lose) lives. In peacetime this should never be acceptable. However, whenever you have a decision to make, if you consider the 3 factors properly, you will normally come up with the right answer. Just remember that the people who work for you may have a different perspective and assign different values, so don't be afraid of explaining your logic if you feel it would help, or asking advice from above and below.

STH

Aeronut

Why wait till IOT is out of the way ? - at RAF Cranwell you are perfectly positioned for a spot of gliding or to make a start on that PPL.


I'm thinking more about the latter part of your IOT course and since you will be conducting your branch training (Engineer Specialist Training- EST) at Cranwell too you may as well get on with it or at least make contact for when you have a little more spare time.
Once into EST you will get the opportunity to state your preferences for first posting. Don't place too much hope on this but if you push for one with a flying club (See RAFFCA's website as linked to above) it would help you with your aim for a PPL. However, it all depends on what the desky has got to "shift" that week. All part of the excitement. Theres always someone that has to reach for the road atlas on posting day. Perhaps less so these days with fewer stations.


Whilst on the subject of first posting it is debatable whether it is worth plunging straight into a Squadron JEngO job for first tour or finding your feet in another type of Station post first. Definitley avoid anything to do with "aquisition" or Integrated Project Teams until much later. Unbeliveably, first tourists have been sent to Abbey Wood or Wyton deciding the finer points of support having never seen aircaft support for real. But above all get on a flying station first tour, whatever the job, whilst we still have some.

All the best, sounds like you will make the most of it.

Aeronut

PS. Oh! and make sure the padre (Devil Dodger) doesn't hear you blaspheming "My God - I've joined the RAF!" You'll have to talk to him!

Reversed Engineer

Cheers chaps, once again many thanks for some top advice! The RAFFCA link was very useful too, thankyou.

A little off topic but you've raised a smile with "Elephant's Nest" and "Devil Dodger"! Tres amusing! I'm a silly s*d for euphamisms like that, I dare say there are a multitude more...

Aeronut

Just wait until you are being inspected or being drilled by the masterfully sarcastic RAF Regiment drill instructors.

Top Right

Reversed Engineer,

Concur with all previous advice, here are a few more snippets:

1. You will be criticised by directing staff (DS) - even if you do not agree with the criticism. Take it positively (bite your lip if necessary), be receptive and be "seen" to have addressed this issue the next time. Their job is to bring things to your attention - so be attentive.
2. Be decisive and be prepared to justify later your decision on a task, if things didn't go as well as envisaged. Do not be indecisive - if necessary, ask for opinions from your team so as to "gather the right info" before making the decision.
3. Try and be positive all the time - you will be knackered, a lot, and you won't feel like being positive - but if you can bring a smile to those around you at the low points, and the tone of your posts here suggest you can, this will help you and the team - but don't be flippant, that will just p off the DS.
4. At times you have to swallow your pride when not agreeing with something. Yes, there is a time and a place for speaking out, but you have to pick your moments very carefully to do this on OACTU. Swallow it, move on, and think about graduation in the ever decreasing number of weeks.
5. Be honest at all times - don't try and hide anything, you'll get found out. And be seen to be critical of yourself in debriefs - not negative, just those things you know you can do better, and then do it better next time.
6. Some tasks will require immediate urgency - ie task over team and people - just do it.

As you've already concluded, the theme listed here is "be seen to listen, learn, adapt and improve". That's what the training regime is there to embody into you. If you display an attitude that doesn't fit with the sequence, you will have a hard time.

ARINC

A few additions

1. Don't offer to drop another tool inside the bowels of an aircraft to try and replicate what happened to the first. (I kid you not)

2. FOD plods are social events to be enjoyed by all ranks.

3. Humour and common sense are prerequisites.

A little anecdote to illustrate the point....

I had one superb JENGO spend a cold winters evening in some god forsaken German forest with me and my oppo trying to fix a refuel snag on a Harrier. Yes you guessed it the aircraft was already full but the gauges were under reading even after cal. We eventually twigged and dipped the drop tank, the SENGO got covered in fuel.
Thereafter He'd always give me a cheery smile and threaten me with a dry cleaning bill.

rjh04

Hi,

When I finish Uni I want to join the RAF or possible become a navy pilot.

I want to make sure my mental skills are up to the aptitude tests, any suggestions for practicing?

I've seen lost of software being taked about on this forum but looks to me like it's aimed more at airline pilots rather than people looking to go into the forces. Any ideas?

Thanks

chippy63

Not sure if this link is helpful-
www.how2become.co.uk/royalairforce.htm
Edited- sorry, couldn't get the hyperlink thinggy to work. Re-edited- now it does seem to work!

skaterboi

Yep, I did the same. They were also taken aback and asked if I was sure to which I said "Yes, thank you I am" but no more was said and thankfully I got in. Shame the bit about fast jets didn't come true though
A good mate of mine, who also did the same, said he had added bandmaster to his choice of pilot. Apparantly he was asked if he could read music, to which he said no, and this allegedly went down really well! I personally wouldn't recommend this though

Ste1337

Hi,

I'm 16 and recently applied to join the RAF, in their medical it stated that hayfever may affect your medical exam and application if you have had hayfever within the last 4 years. I didnt remember having hayfever but we phoned up the doctors to check and just over 4 years ago i saw the doctor about hayfever.

Since it was more than 4 years ago i was still allowed to apply but had to fill an additional medical form out.

Does anybody within the RAF or maybe somebody who works at a recruit office know if this will have a major affect on my application or any affect what so ever? Hayfever no longer affects me in any way now but it used to when i was a small child.

Also any other tips for my interview would be great! I really want to get into the RAF and it would probably be my dream career to fly a jet fighter like the eurofighter typhoon.

Thanks,
Ste.

SirToppamHat

Ste

I am not a doctor or a medic of any kind.

However, I am serving. There are probably many posts about this on the Mil, Medical or Wannabee forums, have you tried a search on 'Hay Fever'?

I know many serving personnel who suffer from 'summer colds'; certainly it is possible to obtain medication for the condition once you are in the RAF. This type of thing is most likely to impact on your application if you are applying for pilot/WSO. My advice would be to play down the medical history - if you have officially been clear for 4 years and that meets the RAF requirement then fine - if you feel another summer cold coming on between now and your next medical, pop down to Boots and buy something off the shelf.

Medicals seem to be a bit variable, but I am given to understand that the intention is to get people who are as trouble free as they possible can be at the point of joining, so as to minimise the risk of their needing attention later on. There are probably people on this site who can quote chapter and para from the documents, and I hope they will be able to be more precise than I have been.

The other thing I would say, based on personal experience, is that Med Cats change and can go up or down as the rules are changed. I applied to the RAF for GD(Pilot)/(Nav)/FC the mid 80s, but having had asthma as a child was turned-down flat. Being short-sighted didn't help, but it was the asthma that made me 'Permanently Medically Unfit for all forms of service'. In the words of the Dr: "If we had a Branch or Trade for Bin Man in the RAF, you couldn't join it!" Nice, eh?

Four years later and with 2 sports degrees, I applied to the Army. As I could already fly, they encouraged me to apply for Army Air Corps as Pilot, and sent me to the RAF for a medical - despite my protestations (they were desperate). Eyesight again stopped me from getting through as aircrew, but I found that my 'childhood asthma' was something they now accepted you could 'grow out of', and it may not even have been asthma in the first place, such was the penchant of doctors in the 70s to diagnose any slight weaziness as asthma. Suddenly, I had an A4 G1 Z1 Med Cat, and joined the RAF in '89 as a Fighter Controller. You may find your brief dealings with your own dr are treated similarly, but you will help your own case by playing it down.

Good luck.

STH

Min Decent Ht

At OASC I declared hay fever as a teenager only, and that stopped me from being accepted as aircrew. I had to clean latines for 4 years before I could persuade the docs to let me fly. Then I had to have surgery.... its a long story.

Deny everything. Get summer colds like the rest of us. Although I hear the latest injection is effective.
When you get your brevet, start getting hay fever.

H5N1

The gospel according to the medical manual AP1269A is as follows

"aircrew candidates with a declared history of hayfever may be considered for selection if they have had no treatment and no symptoms in the four years preceeding their appearance before the selection medical board."

Summer colds from here on in then!

Runaway Gun

You don't have hayfever.

Monty77

I had exactly the same thing when I applied for a Flying Scholarship in the '80s and was declared 'temporarily unfit' - temporarily referring to the 4 year hay fever-free period. You haven't had hay fever since you were 10 years old alright? I later joined and did 18 years as a pilot. Good luck.
Another thing. During the interview at the Careers Information Office a kindly old Warrant Officer was obliged to ask me the question whether I had ever taken drugs. Being young and not very savvy I wanted to do the right thing and be honest. So I told him that yes, I had once had a go at marijuana at a party but didn't like it and had stuck to booze ever since. Bless him, he put down his pen, looked at me and said, "You seem like a fine young man and I believe the RAF can do with people like you. If you tell me you have taken drugs you will be rejected out of hand. I will now ask the question again. Have you ever taken drugs?". "No sir." A truly life-defining moment. He knew I wasn't a low-life druggy, just a young bloke trying to be honest. Discretion, when exercised correctly, reaps rewards. A maxim I have applied for a long time is, 'Will this matter in 5 year's time?'. If it will, give it your undivided attention.

JAG3

Just make sure you have sound evidence from your GP or maybe a specialist like I did with asthma that you don't have hayfever now and your are fully operational.

Good Luck

05c4r

I am 15 years old currently working towards my GCSE exams, when i finish high school i am going to go to a decent sixth form and from there apply to the RAF. I am phisically fit, have perfect vision and have no illness' but what i really want to find out is realistically what grades do i need to be aiming for, the raf careers website says 5 A* - C and 2 A levels; but surely with the amount of competition that cant be the case? I should to get 2 A*, 4 A, 3 B at GCSE but i aim to better that. What els can i do to improve my chances and make me better than the next guy?

movadinkampa747

English would be a start. Phisically is physically and els is else. You also need to work on your Grammar as it is terrible.
raf should also be in capitals, but apart from that you are doing just fine.

G-EDDS

Give the kid a break he's only 15!! If those are the grades you are predicted then good on you that’s more A's than I got. Make sure you choose something at sixth form that interests you, work hard at it and do well. The thing that will set you well apart from the competition is a high aptitude score at Cranwell, a sound knowledge of the RAF, Current Affairs and doing well in all the Interviews and Leadership tests. But remember you want to be a Officer first.

There is plenty of knowledge on this site and a lot of your questions will have been answered in the past so a good search of previous posts should yield some good info.

jayteeto

EDDS, correct, this has been done to death and there are many threads whinging about grammar. BUT, he asked the question: How can I be better than the next guy? Answer..... Sorting grammar and spelling would be a small start, first impressions actually count. You may be a potential future Chief of the Air Staff Harrier God who gives an bad first impression and make it through, OR, you could be borderline in selection and it could tip the balance in your favour.